Something to Talk About
by Athenaktt
Summary: COMPLETED! ShepWeir. People have always had a tendency to talk, and the joyride that John convinces Elizabeth to take with him ends with only more fodder for people to gossip about. Spoilers through Phantoms


_**Author's notes:** This fic was written for the Second Annual Sheppard/Weir ficathon community on Livejournal. It was a request for "fluff, non-established relationship, friendship fic (UST preffered but optional). Bonus points for an appearnce by Zelenka." And thanks to my beta SallyLizzie for putting up with my procrastination as usual. _

_**Pairng**: Sheppard/Weir_

_**Spoilers: **Up through 3x10 - "Phantoms"_

**Something to Talk About**

The rear cargo bay door of _Puddle Jumper Six_ was lowering as John entered the Jumper Bay. Doctor Radek Zelenka, scratched his disheveled hair and walked out of the Jumper with a tablet computer in his other hand.

"Radek!" Radek gave a startled jump when John called out to him.

"Ah, Colonel Sheppard, you are here," he said with his prominent accent.

"Yes, I am," John smirked. "Is this baby ready to fly again?"

"We've spent the last several months fixing it. We think she's ready to take flight again."

"You think?" John crossed his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow.

"She's ready..." Radek hated when people questioned him on the spot. It made him _very_ uncomfortable. "We flew it around the vicinity and it didn't crash. Now we need to test to see if it can stay in the air a little longer."

"If it _stays_ in the air a little longer?" John did not like how that sentence sounded. "Where's Rodney?"

"Rodney said he didn't want to be anywhere near _Jumper Six_.'Too many traumatic memories,' he says," Radek shrugged.

"So you're sure this is safe? Because I don't want to be fished out of the ocean like Rodney."

"I believe it is safe, Colonel. We have set precautions and a rescue team will be standing by just in case."

"Do these Jumpers have eject buttons?" John asked. "'Cause it'd be nice to be able to jettison out of a craft before it decides to take me exploring a thousand fathoms below."

"Colonel, do you want to test out the Jumper or not?" Radek asked warily.

"Yeah," John shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do."

Radek sighed. Somehow he had a feeling that John was playing twenty questions with him mainly because he was bored. "Doctor Weir!" Radek waved Elizabeth over with a little more enthusiasm than was needed.

"Hello, Radek, John," she greeted both men, who smiled and returned her greeting. "So this is _Jumper Six_?" she asked looking into the cargo hold of the Jumper. "It looks as good as new. I would never have guessed this ship crashed into the bottom of the ocean a couple months ago."

"Well salvaging this ship is easier than building a Jumper from scratch," Radek noted.

"He's got a point," John chimed in. "It's a lot harder building something from scratch when you don't even have the raw materials to begin with."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement then knitted her eyebrows together at John. "So what are you doing here, John?"

"Zelenka asked me if I wanted to take the Jumper out for a spin."

"Are you sure this ship is ready?" she asked Radek. "The last time we thought this ship was fixed Rodney ended up sinking several thousand feet."

"Radek just assures me that there will be a rescue team standing by, and now we know what to do, so there's nothing to worry about. Are you worried about me?" he said smugly.

"John Sheppard, I _always_ worry about you and the trouble you _always_ bring home to me."

"I do my best," he smirked. "So, you want to come?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, incredulous.

"Come fly with me."

"Hold on Sinatra. Isn't this a test flight?"

"Yes, that means we'll be back in a less than an hour. We'll just fly to the mainland and back, right?" John looked over at Radek and nodded. Radek, not sure that he wanted to get involved with the conversation between the two leaders, only followed John's lead and obediently smiled and nodded.

"Why are you insisting I go along with you on this test flight?" This time it was Elizabeth's turn to raise her brow in suspicion.

"Because I am doing you a service and giving you a break," John simply said.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at John.

"Besides, Zelenka is afraid of flying. Rodney _hates_ this Jumper, for obvious reasons. Teyla and Ronon aren't the best people to have around for conversations. So that leaves you."

"Ah, the process of elimination," she said.

"Exactly, so let's go." He clapped his hands together and started to gently push Elizabeth up the ramp into the Jumper.

"John, I can't—" Elizabeth looked over at Radek helplessly and sighed.

As soon as they were inside, John gave Radek a quick wave and raised the Jumper doors. Elizabeth stood in place with her arms across her chest, eyeing him skeptically. "Don't worry," he assured her. "Zelenka will tell the others where you've gone, and we'll be back before anyone even misses you."

* * *

"_We'll be back before anyone even misses you_," Elizabeth quoted sitting in the copilot seat next to John.

The ride to the mainland had been uneventful and smooth. There were no problems until John decided to take the Jumper out into the planet's orbit. Elizabeth had advised against it, but John had persuaded her by saying that _Jumper Six_ would eventually have to fly into space to be of any use to them. That was when the power gave out again. On the positive side, they were not going to plummet down in the depths of the ocean. On the negative side, they were stranded in space without power.

"At least I didn't crash land," John said sheepishly.

"Let's just hope there aren't any fissures where our air can leak out."

"Think positive, Elizabeth." It was completely dark in the Jumper, but John did not need his eyes to tell him that Elizabeth was rolling her eyes at him. "Rodney and his brainiacs will figure out a way to tow us back down in a couple hours. So right now it's best just to sit back and enjoy the view."

Elizabeth sighed and looked out the only window available to her as John felt his way into the rear compartment for some flashlights.

"What are you thinking?" John asked, as he continued to blindly feel for the flashlight in the top compartment.

"I am thinking... Why on Earth did I let you drag me on this little joy ride?"

"Because you secretly want to spend more time with me?"

"Excuse me?" she scoffed.

"Well, why else would you be here?" He found one flashlight and continued digging for another. "I'm sure if Rodney asked, you wouldn't let him drag you out this far."

"There are good reasons for that," Elizabeth said defensively.

"Oh?" Now he was genuinely curious. "Prey tell what these 'good' reasons are."

"First off, I trust you to keep me safe if we run in to trouble. Though every time I am off-world with you, we always end up in prison... So I think that trust may be misplaced."

"Not always," he retorted. "There were some times where we were only… trapped somewhere that is _not_ a prison. Like right now. We are just stranded in space. OW!"

"John? What happened?" Elizabeth got out of her chair and started walking towards the back of the Jumper. "John? Are you okay?" Her hands were stretched out to keep her from walking into the bulk head doors.

"Yeah, I'm all right. I just can't get this thing out." He said the last sentence with a short pause between each word as he tried to tug on something. He gave the object one strong jerk and it finally was free, but this time it was Elizabeth's turn to yelp.

John only saw Elizabeth's hand come up to her face and stumble back a few steps. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" he said quickly. He took her hand and led her to sit down on the bench. He fumbled for the On switch on the flashlight, managing to blind Elizabeth in the process.

"John!" Elizabeth swatted John's hand away to move the light beam from her eyes.

"Sorry," he apologized again. "I'm going to bring the light back to see the damage, okay?"

Elizabeth nodded. She raised her fingertips and could feel the skin below her left eye starting to swell. John made a face when he noticed the area beneath her eye had reddened and started to swell a bit.

"It doesn't look bad, just a little red. How are you feeling?"

"Like I got elbowed in the face," she said, still touching the tender skin lightly.

"Stop touching it." He grabbed her fingers and pulled them away from her face. "Let's put some ice on it." He went back to the cockpit and found the First Aid Kit and pulled out an instant ice pack. "Here." He gently placed the cold pack against the redder part of her face.

He squatted in front of her and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "I'm really sorry. I didn't see you there."

"It's all right," she shook her head. "It's hard to see anything in the dark."

"At least we can tell McKay to hurry up, since we have a medical emergency now," he said sheepishly.

"What is Rodney's plan to get us back down to the planet?" she asked and winced when she removed the ice pack from her face, her cheek began to feel numb.

"He said since we are not in any immediate danger, we should sit tight and relax. The Daedalus is due to arrive in a few hours, so we might as well just wait for them to pick us up."

"A few hours, huh? That's very vague of him." Elizabeth sighed and leaned her head against the wall.

"I was going to ask Rodney for an arbitrary number, but I didn't feel like letting him go on another tirade about the military's obsession with arbitrary numbers."

John decided to sit down next to Elizabeth since squatting was making his legs hurt. He held up the flashlight to her face, careful to not blind her again, and observed the bruise that was starting to form where he had hit her. "It's not too bad. Nothing a bit of concealer won't fix."

Elizabeth gave John an icy glare. "I'm sorry," he apologized again. "You can hit me if you want. You can give me a black eye too. You know, eye for an eye, measure for measure."

"John, you didn't mean to elbow me, right?"

"Of course not. You're not Rodney. You should be proud of me for not punching Rodney in the last several years," he said, changing the subject.

"But you _have_ shot him."

"It was in the leg," he retorted, "and he _told_ me to do that."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at John. "What about on M1B-129?"

"That was because of the Wraith machine and he looked like Taliban..."

"And Teyla looked like Holland," she nodded, remembering reading the reports. "I wonder what I would have looked like to you if I were there."

"I don't know," John shook his head. "I'm glad you weren't there. I don't think I could forgive myself if I shot you." Elizabeth glanced sideways at him. The dim light and shadows made his face hard to read. "Even right now I feel terrible for knocking you in the eye."

"It's all right, John." She patted the back of his hand in a comforting gesture. "I've been worse. We've all been worse," she added.

"You're right. This is really a piece of cake. We're just going to sit here…" He twiddled his thumbs and looked over at Elizabeth. Her head was still leaning against the wall and her eyes were closed. "Did you bring your palm pilot by any chance?" he asked. He began shining the flashlight around the Jumper, looking for something to entertain him.

"No, you are not using my palm pilot to play games." Her eyes remained closed.

"Why not? You're always playing games on it."

Elizabeth sat up to face him. "I do not."

"Caldwell said you did."

"He didn't."

John grinned. "Yes, he did."

"He's just bitter that I beat him at chess," Elizabeth conceded, "and for your information, that was on my tablet and not the palm pilot."

"Tablet, palm pilot, same difference," he shrugged. "If we're going to be sitting in here for a couple of hours, we need to entertain ourselves somehow."

"And what do you have in mind?"

"Well... if you had your palm pilot, I could play the games on there."

"And while you are wasting the batteries on my palm pilot, what do you propose I do?" she asked.

John pressed his lips together trying to think of an answer. Nothing came to him. "Do you have chess on it?"

"Aren't you afraid of losing to a girl?" Elizabeth tried to narrow her eyes at John, but instead she found herself wincing from the pain under her eye.

"I won't lose," he said confidently. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him. "Unless you want me to lose to you," he amended.

"John Sheppard, are you trying to be a gentleman now?"

"What are you talking about? I'm always a perfect gentleman. I did defend your honor to Woolsey that one time," he reminded her.

"Yes," she nodded. "You did. But you also just gave me a black eye."

"Your eye isn't black... yet..."

"I rest my case."

John let out a sigh. "Do you have your palm pilot here or not?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." She patted the side of her thigh and found that her pockets were empty. "I guess I left it on the co-pilot seat." She got up and shuffled toward the cockpit. She saw the sun's faint light reflect off the palm pilot and reached over the chair to retrieve it. As soon as she felt the cool exterior of the device in her hand, she whipped her body around and ran into John. Into his arms.

John had not expected Elizabeth to turn around so suddenly after retrieving the palm pilot, and the lack of light had caused him to misjudge the distance he stood behind her. However, that misjudgment did not seem to matter when he saw her surprised green eyes looking up into his.

"You okay?"

The last time they shared such personal space was after the first Wraith Siege. He hadn't expected her to throw her arms around him, and this time he did not expect her to walk into his arms. John was sure Elizabeth had not planned on this either. He was still holding onto her arms, while her hands remained rested on his chest. Neither of them moved.

"Yeah," Elizabeth finally said.

"I think the cockpit got smaller," he said.

Elizabeth broke eye contact from John and turned her head away. John let go of her arms and was about to move out of the way when he noticed the bruise around her eye had darkened further. He placed his hand under he chin and tilted her head for him to get a better look.

"Looks like you've got a black eye now."

She looked back up at him. "Thanks to you."

His finger grazed over her face lightly, sending a sudden chill through her body. Elizabeth felt her heart racing as John's head leaned closer in towards her. Elizabeth closed her eyes and waited...

"Colonel Sheppard."

Elizabeth gasped and stepped back when she heard Zelenka's voice on the radio. John grabbed her around the waist before she fell over the chair.

John still had his arm around Elizabeth's waist as Radek continued talking. "Colonel, the _Daedalus_ was ahead of schedule and she has arrived."

"Colonel Sheppard, this is the _Daedalus_," Caldwell's voice came overhead. "Our sensors have located you and Doctor Weir. We will be beaming you up right now."

Before John or Elizabeth had a chance to regain their footing and acknowledge Caldwell's plan, there was a bright flash and John and Elizabeth found themselves on the bridge of the _Daedalus_.

Colonel Steven Caldwell had been in many awkward situations before, and he had a feeling that this, surely, wouldn't be the last. He knew he should have let the two Atlantis leaders have a couple of seconds to gather themselves before beaming them onboard, but it was too late now.

Colonel John Sheppard and Doctor Elizabeth Weir were standing before him and his crew on the bridge in each other's arms in unadulterated surprise.

Elizabeth was the first one to turn red and let go of John. John merely folded his hands behind his back and tried to keep a straight face as he turned to face his superior.

"This is not what you think, sir."

"I don't know what I think, Colonel. I— Doctor Weir, what happened to you?" Caldwell asked when he finally noticed the bruise under Elizabeth's left eye.

"While we were stranded in the Jumper," Elizabeth began, "there was a minor mishap and..."

"What? Colonel Sheppard hit you?" Caldwell meant it as a joke, but when Elizabeth pursed her lips together and shrugged, he felt a bit awkward.

"It was an accident," Elizabeth added.

"And when you beamed us up, I was checking out the bruise," John quickly said.

"All right," Steven furrowed his brows together. "Let's get the two of you to the infirmary. We're going to tow the dead Jumper into the bay, then take you back down to Atlantis."

"Thank you, Steven." Elizabeth said not making eye contact and quickly walked past the crew, out the doors, and towards the infirmary.

John nodded to Caldwell and said a quick "thank you, sir" before running after Elizabeth. He figured since most people would be talking about seeing Elizabeth embraced in his arms, him following her to the infirmary wouldn't matter much. Not since the two leaders had just given everyone something to talk about for the next several months.

**---Finis---**


End file.
